Asus has announced some of technical details of its second generation luxury laptop, the Lamborghini branded VX2, which comes compete with a leather-bound palm rest.
We’re not quite sure what kind of market that Asus is hoping to attract with this heady mix of Lamborghini and black leather (a fast driving heavy metal fan, perhaps?), but the laptop sure looks mighty purdy, encased in an aluminium-magnesium alloy or carbon fibre surround with a super shiny lid..
Lurking inside the upmarket casing is 13.3-inch 1,280×800 pixel WXGA display, a large keyboard, 120GB hard drive, integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, DVD super multi drive and an equally shiny copy of Windows Vista (Home Premium edition installed by default).
Despite the Lamborghini badge on the lid, you won’t find a v8 engine inside but a rather sprightly 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo T5600 processor with Intel 945GM Express integrated graphics and 1GB of memory (with an option to install an extra half a gig).
There’s bluetooth and WiFi onboard, naturellement, with the standard battery keeping the laptop revved up for around 2.7 hours of juice on a single charge.
An optional extended battery nearly doubles the uptime at the expense of a distinctly Morris Minor-esque lardy bulk sticking out of the back of the machine.
Wrapping up the specs is three USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire/IEEE 1394 interface, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN and a V.92 modem for traditionalists looking for that authentic 1997 surfing experience.
The lappie weighs in at 1.86kg (2kg with extended battery) and measures up at 317×228.6×32.15~37.5mm.
The leather clad beast is expected to slither out of Japanese shops at the end of the month for about 249,800 Yen, which is something like $2,000, or just over a grand in good ol British spondulas.
[Via Reg Hardware]
The boffins at Samsung have developed a super long life fuel cell expansion dock that will keep laptops powered up for over a month.
Samsung’s dock clips on the back of the laptop and measures up around the same size as a regular laptop docking station.
Channel 4 are having problems delivering their 4OD, Geo-restricted content to their UK-based consumers.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) movement got a boost this week when their first production model arrived at their offices. 
For us, the biggest surprise is the sheer smallness of it – when you see it sitting on top another ‘normal’ laptop it will be clear. 
We’ve been avid followers of the OLPC or $100 laptop as it used to be called since the 
Slowly taking shape through the fug of a host of iffy Japanese web translations is the Epson Endeavor ST100, an ultra-small PC. 
The specs look like they’ll handle all your office jobs too, with the Endeavor being powered by a fairly beefy 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo T6700 mobile CPU. 
There’s also a healthy 2GB of RAM onboard, with a generous 160GB 5400rpm SATA hard disk and a DL DVD burner for storing all your stuff. 
UK PC vendors Evesham have rolled out what they’re claiming is the smallest and lightest notebook on the market to feature an optical drive. 
What makes this wee laptop unusual is the fact that Evesham’s engineers have managed to wedge in a DVD/CDRW/Dual Layer DVD-RW drive, instead of offering the usual external optical drive bundled with most small laptops. 
There’s also onboard audio and speakers and a battery life claimed at a healthy five hours, with an optional extended battery ramping uptime to a day-spanning ten hours. 
A new survey has revealed that UK consumers are way down with streaming and downloading audio-visual content into their living room, but they’re not so keen on paying for the stuff. 
The report found that half of those questioned weren’t prepared to pay a single Goddamn bean extra for streamed/downloaded content, with a further 18% only willing to cough up £2 per month for content, and 22% only happy to pay between £2 and £5. 
According to Olswang’s research, easily-distracted, multi-tasking consumers are paying less attention to watching programmes, with 46% of respondents busy emailing and 43% web surfing while watching television. 
Orb MyCasting has been grabbed by Nokia to be bundled in with the Nokia N80 Internet Edition, in the US only. 
Sony Europe has announced the Vaio LA-Series, a striking all-in-one Media Centre which is sure to make a big statement on your desk (e.g. “I have pots of money” or, “keep your grubby mitts off my fashion statement transparent surround”). 
In a design not entirely unreminiscent of the iMac, the slim and sleek unit has all the components and gubbins neatly tucked away behind a large LCD screen. 
In line with the unit’s eye catching looks, there’s Sony comes bundled with a wireless keyboard and mouse in a stylish brushed aluminium finish, with the keyboard “folding up for a beautiful presentation when not in use.” Can’t say we’ve ever seen a beautifully presented keyboard before, but there you go. 
Although I know that shouting at computer components is unlikely to make them magically fix themselves, it somehow makes me feel a bit better. 
Cursed with a jazz approach to functionality, it’s a moody number with a teenager’s approach to getting up. 
Naturally, the ‘clean heads’ option has little effect (apart from draining £££ inks at an accelerated rate) but just when I’m about to give up on the thing completely – whoosh! out comes a perfect print, with deep blacks and vibrant colours. 
It knows when things are urgent